Clearing some obstacles...

      So, I had promised to try and update this once a week even if I didn't have much  to really post about, I had figured last time that this week would be kinda short as I was sort of in a holding pattern between appointments and hadn't seen much of a change recently...boy was I wrong.

It doesn't matter what kind of diet you are on or what approach you take to loosing weight if you have more than I would say 40 pounds to loose, at some point during the process you are going to have a plateau.  It didn't end up lasting very long but I had a bit of a plateau recently. I got to 347 pounds and then just hovered between 350 and 347 for about a week and a half. I had been sticking dogmattically to my diet and had been getting a lot of excercise too.

You may say "It was only a week and a half couldn't be that big of a deal." and you are right but when you go from loosing a little more than a pound a day for a month to nothing and even gaining a pound or two, especially when you have a pretty long diet history without success you still get a little depressed.

As I mentioned last post I had gone back to work last Tuesday.  Tuesday evening I started thinking something might be wrong.  I couldn't even eat the small Quantities I was supposed to be eating. I would eat maybe a third of an ounce and be full and feel full and somewhat bloated for an hour or so and I suddenly didn't have much energy.  Turns out I had what they call a stricture, and it is a complication that between a quarter and a third of people who have the surgery I had end up developing.
 
Because of the stricture, which I found out about on Wednesday but that they couldn't fix until Friday I had to revert back to the previous phase of the diet with the 5 really soft foods.  This was really discouraging because after 2 weeks of only those 5 foods I was really tired of all of them.

I will try not to get to graphic here but try and explain what a stricture is.  When I had the surgery they removed a majority of my stomach and a few feet of the small intestine and reattached the remaining stomach pouch to the small intestines. Where they make that connection scar tissue forms as the connection heals.  in several cases the scar tissue  shrinks the hole to the point where even soft or pureed food have issues passing thru the opening.  In my case the hole had shrunk to about the diamiter of the tube of ink in a Bic ink pen.

"So how do they fix it?" you may ask... and I am glad you asked.  It is actually pretty simple, really. I had to go back to the hospital where they put me under and stuck a camera and a balloon down my throat into my stomach pouch, they put the balloon into the hole and inflate it, stretching the opening until it is back to the correct size.  They say that 50-60% of those that have a stricture will develop it a second time So I may have to do that again.  Which is fine, it wasn't too bad really, I was in and out of the hospital including paperwork, prep and recovery in under 3 hours and and had no discomfort at all from the procedure.

I quickly realized that the stricture, at least in part, had been responsible for my plateau and after it was fixed I started loosing again right away.  I weighed Sunday morning and was down to 342, I am guessing I may be under 340 now but don't like to weigh too often.  I am guessing I will be near 335 next Sunday or Monday and that will be another 20 pound milestone so I should have a few new pictures next week.

I had been doing a lot of walking and slowly building up from just a few blocks at a time in the first week or so to a couple of miles a day recently but I didn't think it was enough and really wanted to get back to the gym and really drive myself.  I am still under a lifting restriction but as long as I am careful I can do cardio.  The office building I work in just underwent a pretty major remodel, in the process they put in a workout room and some locker rooms.  It's not to bad of a setup 4-5 treadmills, a few elipticals, a few stationary bikes, a universal weight machind and a couple of weight benches and some free weights.
 
I decided to give it a try, I will not be going back, it will be back to 24 Hour Fitness for me (didn't like their elipticals and the locker rooms were really poorly designed).  I really love elipticals so I tried it first and the mechanics were just not right for me and there was no way of adjusting it. So I just decided to do the treadmill.

I had never aspired to be a "runner", but I do aspire to reach a point of being fit not just skinny and I think that being a well-rounded fit person would include running so I decided to start "Couch to 5k", for those who don't know "Couch to 5k" (or "C25k) is a structured program designed to take novice beginners and get them from no running at all to being able to run 5k without walking in 2-3 months.  So today was day 1, which was basically a 5 minute warm up followed by alternating run for a minute walk for four minutes fo 30 minutes and a 5 minute cooldown.  I have never really enjoyed walking on treadmills but I really enjoyed it today and am looking forward to progressing in the program.

As many of you know I like to put a little bit in here about the other major change in my life and that is that I am gonna become a daddy in roughly 1 and a half to two months. So the update is that Aprils bursitis in her hips is finally starting to relax and April is feeling a lot better.  Little Evren seems to be doing fine, heis kicking up a storm and taking the occasional nap on mommys organs which of course is not fun.  We are expecting him to turn head down in the next few weeks , right now he is laying horizontally like he is relaxing in a hammock.  We also had a baby shower down in my hometown of Loveland this weekend and got lots of good stuff for Evren. Thank you to anyone that was there.

Well as always thanks for reading and of course thanks for the toughts and prayers and for the encouragement.  Be on the lookout for some new pics next week.  God bless.



One last thing I gotta mention just because I am so pumped (and it's still months until preseason football starts). My favorite QB since Elway retired, Peyton Manning, is the new starting QB for my beloved Broncos!!! How freakin' awesome is that!!! GO BRONCOS!! (sorry, had to do it).

"A Return to (semi) normalcy"...

      Today was my first day back at work and it was immediately made clear to me that I had not been keeping up with this blog as well as I should, for that I am sorry.  I have decided I am going to try to find something to post every week even if it ends up being a dozen lines and an update on my weight.

Well as I mentioned I had to return to work today after having a month off.  My feelings were understandably mixed.  I was really excited about seeing my friends and showing off my progress to this point.  I definitely don't get tired of having people come up and tell me how good I am doing and how proud they are...what can I say I am human and like to have my ego stroked from time to time.  It was however a bit rough getting back into the groove and I am still not entirely caught up on everything (although I did get all my email managed).

I had my 3 week followup appointment last week, everything went smoothly. My weight loss rate seems pretty normal compared to others who had surgery the same day as me ( there was one guy that was A LOT bigger than me that had already lost 45 pounds after 3 weeks).  I also got to see my friend Marie as she was there for her 6 week followup appointment.

I finally got my last drain removed, Which was by far the highlight of my day. I was really stinkin' tired of that g-tube and having to change the bandages every day and my skin getting raw from all the tape. The frustrating thing was that due to my complication I had  with the g-tube it had already slid most of the way out but they wouldn't pull it any sooner and when they finally did there was only about an inch and a half still in.

I also graduated to the next diet stage.  This stage has a lot more options.  basically if it is flaky or can easily be torn apart with a fork or your fingers you can eat it so most meat is ok as long as it is a tender cut or cooked until it falls apart or it can be pureed with a little liquid to a slightly chunky consistency (I know pureed meat sounds kinda nasty but it is actually pretty good if it is flavored well).

There are also some other limitations to the diet.  First and foremost protein comes first then complex carbs.  I can't have anything that is really sugary since that can cause dumping syndrome (I haven't had it yet and from what I have heard I don't want to), I also cant have anything really starchy (rice, pasta, bread, potatoes, etc) because starch turns to goo gets stuck together in a glob and then gets stuck trying to pass thru the small opening to my small intestines.  I am also supposed to avoid anything that is crunchy or hard to digest (onions, lettuce, corn) for a few more weeks.

My normal quantity is still one ounce of food every 2 hours.  I know that doesn't sound like much, and it's not, my wife who eats like a bird is eating several times more than me (granted she is in her third trimester and is now eating for two)  You may ask if I am ever hungry eating that small as a quantity, I can honestly say i have not been hungry once since leaving the hospital.  I have however overeaten a time or two, it feels like after Thanksgiving dinner after you have too much turkey and stuffing except somehow more acute and instead of just waiting for it to settle you usually end up throwing up a little bit (sorry for the graphic image there).  It is a lesson you learn very quickly just to avoid  that feeling.

I am amazed by how habitual how you eat is.  As part of the diet leading up to the surgery I was supposed to practice eating really small bites and as y'all know I struggled with this.  Well post surgery I have done pretty well but I have had a few slips and swallowed a few larger bites.  This is another agonizing experience that I have quickly learned to avoid.  I have also learned that eating when distracted is a bad practice because this is what has caused my overeating (by just a small bite or two) and the bites that were too large.

In the world of weight loss we have what we call "NSV's" or Non-Scale Victories, these being accomplishments or milestones due to the weight loss or getting more fit stuff like finally being able to jog a mile without stopping to walk part of it or having to buy new clothes.  My first NSV was probable the fact that I have been completely off my high blood pressure medication since the day of surgery.  I had another NSV this weekend and this one I think is pretty cool and happened far sooner than I expected.  I had to go buy a little spacer for my wedding ring because I had already reached the point where my fingers had shrunk to the point where it no longer fit.

Non-Scale Victories are really cool and all but so is seeing the scale continue to drop and as of this Monday I am at 346 pounds, if you are keeping track that is 35 pounds in 28 days which under other circumstances would be an insanely fast and unsafe rate of weight loss but following gastric bypass is considered a perfectly reasonable rate of weight loss and I am now officially under 350 for good which is awesome. Sorry, no pictures this time but I only have 10 more pounds to the next comparison pictures point so maybe a week, two at the most.

Just a quick note on the other major event in my life.  My wife's hip bursitis seems to slowly be getting better but she still has some pain.  Evren seems to be doing great every time he is measured at the doctors office his measurements and heart rate are dead center average so all is well with him.  His due date isn't until May 23rd but April's family historically has almost always come 2-3 weeks early so we are expecting Evren to be her in just under 2 months.  I know it will be a huge change and that we will be indefinitely bordering on the edge of exhaustion but I can not wait.

Thanks again for reading and as always thanks for the thoughts and prayers.

Lessons learned...

     So,  I am now 19 days post-op, and as of this morning I am 28.3 pounds down since surgery (62 pounds down since starting this journey last July). I have learned a few things over the last few weeks.

As I had mentioned in my last post I had graduated to a new diet phase consisting of one ounce every 2 hours of  5 'real' foods, those being re-fried beans, nonfat yogurt (preferably Greek), low fat or non fat cottage cheese, egg whites or egg beaters, and pudding, I am also drinking an ounce an hour of protein shake and 64 ounces a day of water.  I had mentioned how my first bite of re-fried beans was an amazing experience since it had been about 2 weeks without food.  My opinion of re-fried beans has definitely changed over the last 10 days and I am nearing the point of never wanting to eat them again (same for the rest of the five foods).

I have however found that four of the five foods  can be combined in some decent ways.  I went and bought a small 3" frying pan and have become fairly adept at making really small omelets, which are pretty good when you add a little bit of re-fried beans or cottage cheese.  have also found re-fried beans with a little bit of cottage cheese or plain Greek yogurt is pretty good. I haven't really tried combining the pudding with anything else just doesn't sound pleasant.

I found out pretty quick that even with the small quantity I feel full really quick, to the point that I have to wait a few minutes after eating to drink anything or I start feeling sick and bloated.

Yesterday I decided to try an experiment.  We brought home a small box of a strawberry protein shake from the hospital. It was slightly thicker than milk and not very high in protein so I decided to add some vanilla protein powder to it to supercharge it.  While it tasted really good it turned out really thick, sort of like cake batter and when I drank it it just got sort of stuck in my pouch and took about 20 minutes for it to finally drain.  I was miserable, it hurt a little but more than that it was a constant bloated feeling and some stomach cramping.  I will not be doing that again, ever.

I still have one tube stuck in me (and am really sick of it) but I have an appointment Wednesday and it will be pulled then.  I will also be moving on to the next phase of the diet where I can eat more soft food and puree some harder food to make it edible.  I also get to increase to 2 ounces assuming I don't feel full first.

I know most of of this post has been on the negative side but the truth is I am doing great and am really happy with my decision. My incisions are healing nicely,  I am hardly ever in any pain.  I am also NEVER hungry, even with the small amount I am eating.  One interesting change that has happened is that my body is metabolizing so much less food and generating so much less energy that I am frequently cold but I can always cover up more. I have done some research and this is actually normal after this surgery and while my food intake will increase some causing me to burn more calories and generate more heat I am also losing a really great insulator as I loose weight so. I am thinking we are gonna have to start keeping the house a little warmer now but that is ok because we were going to have to do that anyway with Evren coming in May.

Speaking of Evren, We had an appointment for him yesterday and he seems to be doing great, all the measurements seem to be spot on and his heart rate is absolutely dead center average for how far along he is.  April on the other hand has developed Bursitis in both of her hips and is in quite a bit of pain, but she is seeing a physical and massage therapist and it is getting slowly better.

So, I have hit the next 20 pound milestone so as promised I have posted some new pictures showing my progress.  I also did a side by side closeup of my face just since surgery two and a half weeks ago, I think the change is pretty dramatic.  It occurs to me I never put any other recent pictures from Evren's last ultrasound so I will throw a couple of those out there as well.

As always thanks again for reading and checking out the pictures, I hope you like them.  Once again of course thanks for the thoughts and especially for all the prayers.

Recovery...

Quick disclaimer this post may be a little medically graphic in some areas.

I have to admit this has been a harder recovery than I expected.  I am feeling a lot better and especially  because of still being on an all liquid diet I am currently dropping weight like a rock I am only 10 days since surgery and I have lost 15 pounds.

I am still feeling quite a bit of pain, especially just to the left of my belly button when ever I try to move too much.  The surgeon said that is normal because they did quite a bit of rearranging in that area.

In general my recovery is going pretty much textbook, with one exception.  They put in what they call a Gastric feeding tube or g-tube in to the remnant part of my stomach.  In general they don't put these in for everyone, mostly just for those that use cpap at night for sleep apnea. At night the tube is hooked up to a collection bag and some fluid is drained off.  The neat thing about this g tube is that it goes to your remnant stomach which is technically for the time being still functioning and connected to the intestines.  So if you are running behind on water or protein intake .you can actually inject water or  liquid protein into the stomach thru the g-tube.

Well, Wednesday night we were trying to flush out the tube with water and it felt like it didn't go into the stomach. so Thursday morning we went back to the hospital and they clipped the stitch holding the tube in place saying this sometimes cleared it up.  I went home and we tried flushing the tube again it felt weird again and this time overnight all the watter leaked out thru the hole for the g tube and another hole that had a pain medication going into it.  And the tube for the g tube had come out by about a foot. so we went back to the surgeons office ( the visit the previous day had been to the emergency room).  They took a look at the g tube and decided to keep it in place where it was (a foot out) but we are not using it any more.  Since then we have just been taping it in place, cleaning around it, and otherwise leaving it alone.

While at the surgeons office the nurse did take out the tube that had been dripping pain meds in around the incisions. This took me down to 5 incisions healing and 2 tubes.

We also found out at the surgeons office that I am allergic to some medical adhesive.  We had been using a translucent plastic tape and that caused a really bad rash.  We have since tried a few others and I get a little bit of a reaction from them and my tummy is getting pretty raw just from repetitive changing of bandages and re-taping.

I came home still on oxygen and was on it for right at a week, the oxygen tube going into my nose just about drove me nuts, and even after I got rid of it I still felt like I still had it at times.

I have been going for frequent walks to get some exercise, sometimes it's out around the neighborhood other times when it is too cold it is just pacing back and forth in my living room and dining room.  My cats loved chasing the oxygen hose as I paced in the house.

I find I am not really liking sleeping at night.  I can't sleep on my side yet because it hurts the incisions so I end up on my back all night and my butt that had already been hurting from the hospital bed still hurts from laying on my back all night. On top of that I don't know if it is because I have lost some weight in my face or what the cause is but my cpap mask is not fitting well and is causing a sore spot on the bridge of my nose.

Yesterday was a big day for me. Everyone who had gastric bypass last week had a class about nutrition and the next phase of our diet (there were six of us) and an appointment with the nurse in the surgeons office where she removed one of my drains (JP 'suction' drain), this was one of the strangest things I have ever felt the end of the drain looked like some sort of cloth mesh that was used fur sucking up fluids this was about 8 inches long and then about a foot of hose. The mesh was laid along the incisions collecting fluid. The nurse had me breath in deep and exhale slowly and pulled out the drain I felt it snaking its way around my innards to the exit and then I felt nauseous and crampy for about 5-10 seconds then it was over. So now 6 incisions or holes healing and only one hose still in place.

The great thing about yesterday was that I hadn't had any thing solid to eat since the Saturday before surgery and yesterday we got to go to the next phase of the diet, this includes 5 soft foods that I can now eat, those 5 foods are re-fried beans, low calorie yogurt, Egg Beaters, Cottage Cheese (low fat, small curd), and sugar free pudding.  I can have one ounce every 2 hours along with my hourly ounce of protein and 4 ounces an hour of other liquids.

They want you to only try two new foods a day until you are sure you can tolerate them, then you can mix them as desired if you want.  My first food was the re-fried beans.

Believe me when I tell you that after not eating real food for a week and a half an ounce of re-fried beans never tasted so good, they were delicious.

I have now tried the re-fried beans, the egg beaters and some Greek yogurt (better for you, more protein) and so far so good, no reactions or issues although I did feel my pouch telling me I was full for the first time this morning.

So for the most part I am feeling pretty good now, I still have some pain on occasion (especially when I move too much) and coughing or sneezing is pretty excruciating and I still feel fatigued.

 I am thinking I will have another post or at least some pictures next week some time as I will probably hit my next 20 pound check-mark. Until then thanks for reading and of course thanks for the thoughts and prayers.

Surgery Day...

...was finally here.

This is probably gonna be a long one, just so you know.  I will try and make it not to graphic.

Monday February 13, 2012, our day started at 4:00 a.m., I had already gone 48 hours on the liquid diet and was feeling a little runned down.

We got to the hospital at 5:30 and waited in the waiting room for them to come get me and get this fun started.

Once they took me back they weighed me (surgery day weight 381lbs) and took me to a prep area.  The nurse tried to get an I/V going in me, but me being related to my mom and grandma I am a bit of a tricky stick and she eventually had to bring in somone from the "I/V team" they finally got an I/V st up in the top of my hand.

They gave me some Fragmen (an anti coagulation drug) and a patch behind my ear to help with nausea.

They went over my medical history probably 5 times, seemed every one i spoke to (surgeon, Assistant, anestiologist, nurses) needed to cover it one last time.  They also called back my wife and parents  to see me before taking me to surgery and to see if they had any questions and to let them know what to expect from here on.

They then took me to the operating room introduced me to everyone in the room and moved me to the table and put me on oxygen.........
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(Most people say that from that point they don't remember much of the rest of the day, I was not that lucky.)
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........my first memory was of them rolling me out of the operating room and into the recovery room,  it was an absolutely terifying few minutes.  I remember very clearly knowing exactly what was going on and why. I was in SEVERE pain My abdomen felt like it was on fire, my neck was throbbing with pain, both on the right side whre they had put in the central line in my jugular but also on the left side for some reason.  I also felt when I first woke up like I was gonna hyperventilate, I couldn;t get enough air because of the pain but my body was screammin gfor more.  I also felt like I was trapped on the bed.

I ended up spending about an hour longer in recovery than most because it took longer to get the pain under control. but then they finally rolled me up to my room where my family was waiting for me.

Most of the rest of Monday was spent with my wife and parents setting in the room with me talking while I faded in out of sleep. This being interupted every few hours by having to get up and go for a short walk (yes, I had to get up and walk that first day) and then spending a half hour or so sitting up in a chair before going back to bed.

One of the worst parts of the day was that I had cotton mouth really bad from being intubated during the surgery and really wanted a big drink of water but until they were sure I had no leaks all I could "eat" was one ounce of ice chips per hour, this sucked.

I had been sleeping off and on all day but it hadn't been real restful so I had been looking forward to putting on my cpap mask on and getting a decent night's sleep.  No luck, they don't want you wearing the cpap mask that first night, and my night was not exactly restful.  I am not a "back sleeper", yet that is the only position I could lay in and all the time sitting at an incline to keep my abdomen from hurting had left me with a throbbing tailbone.

Tuesday I felt somewhat better. The day started with having to go and have an upper GI study to make sure I didn't have any leaks.  I had to drink some nasty contrast stuff and make sure it all went thru the pouch alright.  Everything went perfectly, no leaks.

I ended up going for six walks down to the end of the hall and back and felt progressively better with each walk.

April had planned to work this day because she was saving time up for when Evren comes but she ended up calling in because of what ended up being hip bursitis and spent the entire day at the hospital.  My parents had stayed in a nearby hotel overnight and came up to stay with me longer,  my in-laws came up to see me as well. My friend Marie who had her surgery a few weeks earlier came to see me as well. I had a good day visiting with everyone when I wasn't napping or walking or taking one ounce shots of liquid

Tuesday night they had to do a sleep study but that was ok with me because I got to wear my cpap mask.  I slept far better that second night.

Wednesday was mostly just a waiting game. I had to get clearance form several departments then had to get approval to go home.  I finally got to go home about 2:30 in the afternoon.

So my Surgery day weight was 381, I took one of my comparison pictures the day before, I an also using it as my 40 pounds lost shot since that point is just another 6 pounds down at 375 (i slightly revised my starting weight up 3 pounds to 415 just to simplify things) I took several other pictures in the preceeding days of me and how I fit into my life, I will take some more later just for comparison.We took several pictures while in the hospital as well, They are posted on their own picture page here (look for "Hospital stay pictures"), take a look and enjoy.

Sorry it took a few days to get this posted, I am sure you can understand but I haven't been much in a writing mood the last few days.  I will try and have a post up for the first few days after getting home int the next few days.

As always, of course, thanks for reading and thanks for your prayers and support.

Coming down the final stretch...

Most of my posts have been pretty long, I find I tend to get a little verbose when doing this (that and I have gotten lazy at times and had a lot to cover when finally getting around to posting something new).  This one is shorter and I am expecting that over the next few months my posts will be more frequent and somewhat shorter.

My last work week before surgery is finally over, and man it was a slow one.  Gotta say thanks to my TAC family for all the well wishes today.  I am really looking forward to coming back and showing y'all how much I will have lost after just a month.

I have to go on a clear liquid diet starting tomorrow evening so I have been splurging this evening.  Right now I am enjoying some Dryers Vanilla Bean ice cream, its good stuff, and although I know I will take some heat from some saying it was a horrible choice those that know me well will not be surprised at all to learn that my last real food meal for the foreseeable future was an extra value meal at Mcdonalds.  Yes I have seen "Supersize Me", yes I know it is bad for me but on this last day of normal food I don't care.

I came across another gastric bypass related blog, and the cool thing is it is by a woman that had the same surgeon as me and just had her surgery a few weeks ago.  It is really neat to have someone that is going thru the same things I will be going thru in just a few days. I plan on trying to learn as much as I can from her experiences.  Her name is Marie Silverstein and I have put a link to her blog here on my site, I wold highly recommend giving it a read, she is a good writer and has a good story.

So, here I am coming down to the final stretch.  People keep asking me "Are you scared?", of course I am a little nervous.  However I can honestly say my excitement far outweighs my nervousness right now. I have put in a lot of hard work already and have done massive amount of research on this and now there are very few choices in my life that I have been more certain about.

That being said I still appreciate all the prayers and well wishes.

Thanks again for reading.

Just a bit excited...

To say I am excited would be an understatement.  I have previously mentioned I have been looking into gastric surgery for 10 years now and for a variety of reasons it has never happened.  Now here i am only nine days away from my surgery.  Yes I am somewhat nervous but definitely more excited than nervous.

The fact that my surgery is so close and approaching quick has really began to sink in during  the last week and I am sure it will hit me even more this week.  I ordered and received my post-surgery multi-vitamins and sub-lingual b-12 pills.  We have started cleaning out the fridge and pantry of food I wont be able to eat and that April won't eat.

We also started buying some of the food I will be eating the first week or so, lots of jello, protein shakes, and broth.  We still have some other stuff to buy but we have it planned out and we will be ready for everything by next weekend.

I had my pre-op appointments (my very last appointments before surgery, yay!).  The first one was basically pre-op testing, getting blood and urine samples, and another EKG just to make sure the ticker is good.  Second was an appointment with my surgeon where we covered my medical history again, made sure I knew what I needed to do and bring the days before and of surgery (clear liquid diet, bring my cpap machine, etc)  We also revised his view on what my goal weight should be, he said between 210 and 200 pound goal weight, which seeing as I started this journey with my heaviest weight being 420 I will be loosing at least half of me.  My surgeon also said I can expect to loose my first 100 pounds in 4 months.  That means I should be down by 70 to 80 pounds by the time Evren is born.

My surgeon also wanted to make sure I was planning on taking lots of pictures.  I told him about doing this blog , he thought that was really cool and wanted the link so he could read it too (Hi Dr. Snyder, welcome to my blog!).  I think that is pretty cool.

I had mentioned that during the Holidays I had gained back some of the weight I had lost during the first few months of the 6 month diet.  Well I have lost some of  the weight that I gained back and should be back down to just under 380 by surgery.  While I am doing better at sticking to my diet and I have completely cut out all pop from my diet, I am also taking some time to enjoy some favorites for the last time.

My wonderful wife had me put together a sort of pre-surgery "bucket list" of restaurants back around Christmas and then each weekend we have tried to hit some of those restaurants tomorrow after church we are hitting what will probably end up being the last one off that list.  We are going to The Cheesecake Factory, not sure if we will hit the Downtown one or the Park Meadows one but I am sure it will be good.

I am going to be getting some more pictures posted in the next couple of weeks of how I fit into my current life and of course one last of my front and side comparison shot for comparison.  I will let y'all know as they are posted.

So now we are down to it and it is just a matter of waiting this last week, if the last few weeks are any indication this coming week is going to crawl by.

I have found that a lot of people I did not expect are actually following my blog, which is awesome.  I would like to get a better idea of who all is following so if y'all don't mind I would appreciate it if y'all could sign up as followers of my blog, thanks.

As always thanks to reading and thanks for all the prayers, I really appreciate it.

"I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me." Philippians 4:13